Our partnerships make our work possible. The first State LGBTQ+ Business Climate Index released in 2019 was funded by a grant from the Gill Foundation. The Index is based on data graciously shared by the Movement Advancement Project and the Williams Institute. Ropes & Gray is our pro bono legal partner for the CEO Business Briefs globally, and their research informs this Index. FCB partnered with us to conduct original market research into American attitudes toward LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion, informing the Regional Context section of the State CEO Briefs. America Competes supported the development of the scoring for the Risk Assessments, particularly for the Future Risk score.

Out Leadership and FCB partnered on original market research into the attitudes of American workers on LGBT+ inclusion, which fielded in 2019 and 2020. These briefs as a whole will be updated on an ongoing basis by Out Leadership because we recognize the ever-changing nature of policy on the local, state, and national level.

Overall, 52.5% of LGBT+ workers in the West are out at work. However, urbanicity has a big impact on whether LGBT+ workers feel comfortable sharing personal information at work (LGBT+ workers are 26% less likely to share when in rural areas vs 4% less likely to share in urban areas compared to national average). There is also a big impact when it comes to age and being open to managers, with older LGBT+ workers in this region being more likely to share with their managers than any other age group nationwide (52% more likely). West workers are also 14% more likely to report microaggressions at work which may be why LGBT+/Allies are also 15% more likely to say they want to work with companies that are more supportive of LGBT+ rights. Even though there are reports of microaggressions in the workplace, workers in this region were 35% less likely to say that the state’s leadership talked negatively about LGBT+ issues.

Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons for more or less likely are compared to the National results. Regional results are based off of 1,500 respondents (LGBT+ and Non-LGBT+ responses have been weighted to be age-representative for each audience in each region). National results are based off of 600 respondents representative of each audience (LGBT+ vs Non-LGBT+).

States in the Western region included: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

Legal status of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community

• Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is banned in Oregon. The protections cover housing, employment, public accommodations, financial transactions, jury service, state institutions, foster parenting, and public school education.
• The state has nondiscrimination laws that protect youths in foster care on the basis of gender and sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Oregon does not have specific laws criminalizing HIV transmission, but that state has prosecuted people under general criminal laws.
• Hate crimes protections in the state extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Oregon Law prohibits licensed health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy on minors.
• Adoption agencies are prohibited from discriminating on religious grounds against potential parents on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Legal status of the Transgender Community

• To update the gender markers or names on a birth certificate, individuals must submit a notarized application. No further steps are required.
• To update the gender markers on a driver’s license, applicants must simply request a new one.
• Oregon offers a nonbinary, or “x,” gender option for state IDs.
• The state’s Medicaid program, Oregon Health Plan, covers the cost of gender affirmation surgery and hormone therapy.
• Oregon law prohibits transgender exclusions in insurance.

Government statements and actions

• In October 2019, Governor Kate Brown promulgated an Executive Order addressing that all state agencies will need to expand restroom access, to accommodate anyone – state employee or otherwise – who is transgender, nonbinary or gender non-conforming. Also, Basic Rights Oregon has done trainings at every level with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, line staff, civil rights enforcement and directors, which has resulted in a highly responsive employment law and public accommodations law enforcement including things like official technical support documents such as “Pronouns in the workplace”.
• In July 2019, the State House passed legislation to ensure that LGBT+ issues are taught in public schools, including elementary schools.
• In March 2019, the House scrubbed offensive language from laws from the 1850s, deleting “transsexualism” and “transvestism” from Oregon’s employment anti-discrimination law and clarifying that sexual orientation isn’t a physical or mental impairment.
• Oregon Governor Kate Brown became the first-ever openly LGBT+ person to hold that role when she was elected in 2014.
• In June 2019, Sen. Jeff Merkley joined California Sen. Kamala Harris in penning an open letter to the Secretary of State decrying a policy of withholding citizenship from the children of some same-sex couples who were born abroad.